Patriots need to beef up at defensive end

By Mark Daniels/@MarkDanielsPJ

Friday

Mar 2, 2018 at 5:28 PMMar 2, 2018 at 5:29 PM

The Patriots need help in their front seven and the defensive end position is a big part of that.

With the 2017 season in the books, Mark Daniels will take a look at each position group on the Patriots, analyzing how the team performed in that area last season and where it might be heading in the future.

Contract situation: The Patriots have some youth, but plenty of questions with this group.

Flowers enters 2018 in the final year of his rookie contract. He’s set to count as a $2,044,733 cap hit this season. The only other veteran in this depth charter is Harrison, who’s an unrestricted free agent this offseason.

Wise and Rivers enter 2018 on the second year of their rookie contracts. Wise has a modest cap hit of $698,970 and Rivers is on the books for $783,724 this season. Both of their deals run through the 2020 NFL season.

Lee is set to count as a $570,000 cap hit in 2018. He’s set to become an exclusive rights free agent in 2019. Grissom enters 2018 on the final year of his contract. He’ll count as a $720,000 cap hit this season. Davis is signed through 2019. He’ll make $480,000 in 2018 if he makes the team.

2017 review: Last offseason, the Patriots lost Chris Long, Jabaal Sheard and Rob Ninkovich. The attempt to replace the three veterans ultimately failed.

The team traded for Kony Ealy (trading eight spots down in the draft and out of the second round), but released him in August. They then sent two draft picks (fifth and seventh rounder) for Cassius Marsh, but ultimately released him as well. Add in Rivers suffering a torn ACL and the depth got pretty thin. That left a lot of playing time for Flowers and the rookie Wise.

Flowers was solid last season, leading the Patriots with 6.5 sacks. His 25 quarterback hits were tied for seventh in the NFL. He was by far the best defensive end on the roster. Wise had a solid rookie season. The fourth-round pick finished with five sacks and 19 quarterback hits. The situation, however, got dire.

The Patriots were so desperate for help, they signed Lee off the Buffalo Bill’s practice squad. He finished with 3.5 sacks. At the end of the season, the Pats still needed help so they signed Harrison. The 39-year-old had two sacks in his only regular season game with the Patriots. In the playoffs, he started the AFC Championship game and Super Bowl LII. In the team’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Harrison played 92 percent of the defensive snaps. When you have a player who arrived that late in the season playing that much in the Super Bowl, it only highlights your lack of depth.

Grissom barely played on defense and Davis spent the year on the non-football injury/reserve list.

The future: The Patriots need help in their front seven and the defensive end position is a big part of that. The Pats can’t afford to have as little depth as they did last season. In the event they trade for someone this offseason, it hopefully goes better than it did last year.

The failure to replace three veterans (Long, Sheard and Ninkovich) hurt the Patriots in the end. The good news is that Wise looks like a solid pick. Flowers is also in his prime. The team needs to work out an extension for him. It’d also help if Rivers can come back from his knee injury.

If Harrison wants to return, it might not be a bad idea. Of course, he’s turning 40. It remains to be seen how efficient Lee can be, but he showed some promise as a pass rusher.

Still, the Patriots need to address this position this offseason. The team could look for veteran help in free agency. They’ve had luck there before bringing in veterans on prove-it-type deals (Long, Sheard, Andre Carter, Mark Anderson, etc.). Then there’s the draft. The Pats spent two picks last year (Rivers and Wise) trying to beef up their defensive end position. Since they could use more help, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to dip into the draft pool once again.

Mark Daniels writes for the Providence Journal of GateHouse Media.

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